Jessica thought it would be nice to include $\frac{2}{15}$ of a pound of chocolate in each of the holiday gift bags she made for her friends and family. How many holiday gift bags could Jessica make with $\frac{2}{5}$ of a pound of chocolate?
Solution: To find out how many gift bags Jessica could create, divide the total chocolate ( $\frac{2}{5}$ of a pound) by the amount she wanted to include in each gift bag ( $\frac{2}{15}$ of a pound). $ \dfrac{{\dfrac{2}{5} \text{ pound of chocolate}}} {{\dfrac{2}{15} \text{ pound per bag}}} = {\text{ number of bags}} $ Dividing by a fraction is the same as multiplying by the reciprocal. The reciprocal of ${\dfrac{2}{15} \text{ pound per bag}}$ is ${\dfrac{15}{2} \text{ bags per pound}}$ $ {\dfrac{2}{5}\text{ pound}} \times {\dfrac{15}{2} \text{ bags per pound}} = {\text{ number of bags}} $ $ \dfrac{{2} \cdot {15}} {{5} \cdot {2}} = {\text{ number of bags}} $ Reduce terms with common factors by dividing the $2$ in the numerator and the $2$ in the denominator by $2$ $ \dfrac{{\cancel{2}^{1}} \cdot {15}} {{5} \cdot {\cancel{2}^{1}}} = {\text{ number of bags}} $ Reduce terms with common factors by dividing the $15$ in the numerator and the $5$ in the denominator by $5$ $ \dfrac{{1} \cdot {\cancel{15}^{3}}} {{\cancel{5}^{1}} \cdot {1}} = {\text{ number of bags}} $ Simplify: $ \dfrac{{1} \cdot {3}} {{1} \cdot {1}} = {3} $ Jessica could create 3 gift bags.